1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a computer-readable recording medium storing an information processing program in which desktop application software is executed.
2. Description of the Related Art
When application software is used, the intended purpose of the application software is different among users.
Therefore, when a company develops and supplies application software, the company must consider whether the supplied application software sufficiently satisfies the purpose of the user; that is, the company must obtain high customer satisfaction from the supplied application software.
So that the user can expand the functions of the application software, the application software is developed by dividing functions into a basic function and an expansion function.
When the basic function and the expansion function are separately developed, the user can install the expansion function in an information processing apparatus where the basic function has been installed. With this, the user expands the function of the information processing apparatus.
A program which is developed to realize the expansion function is called a plug-in program.
In Patent Document 1, an integrated document managing system is disclosed. In the system, in order to execute data communications among the databases, a function for connecting the databases is provided separately from a program for managing documents as a database connecting function plug-in program.
In the integrated document managing system, when a user access a document via a user interface, the user can operate the system without considering the type of the database. In addition, when specifications of the data communications among the databases are changed, a database is changed or a new database is added. Since a plug-in program can correspond to the change, the system can be easily customized.    [Patent Document 1] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 2001-51840
However, when a user actually uses application software, the user combines functions supplied from plug-in programs corresponding to the intended purpose.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing conventional processes and processes of an embodiment of the present invention when plug-in programs are used. As shown in FIG. 1, in the conventional processes, for example, when a user desires to execute a process “input image data are printed by having color conversion applied”, the user must instruct executing a color conversion function plug-in program P1, which applies color conversion to input image data, and a print function plug-in program P2, which prints color converted image data, via corresponding user interfaces. That is, in the conventional processes, the user must separately instruct the plug-in programs P1 and P2 to execute the corresponding functions.
As described above, in the conventional processes, when the user executes a process in which functions supplied from plug-in programs are combined corresponding to the intended purpose, the process becomes complex. That is, the usability is not sufficient.
It is possible to design the combined functions as one plug-in program; however, the labor-hours and the cost for developing the combined functions are increased.